Things To Do When We Don't Know What To Do

Again and again, I've found myself in a state where I don't know what to do. It could be about society, work, relationships, family, friends.

And this state, I think, is a fundamental part of the human experience.

But we live in a world that prizes decisions, action, outcomes, and a good, clear answer to: What are you going to do?

So, what are we to do when we don't know what to do? We who live in a world that prizes knowing.

I have a few ideas. And they are that: ideas. Not directions or roadmaps. Just a handful of approaches that have helped me.

Acknowledge we don't know what to do. I've found that to be a great release, like exhaling after holding your breath. If not knowing feels powerless, acknowledging we don't know can help reclaim some of that power because calling something what it is is a powerful act itself.

Show up to the work of searching. Not knowing need not be a passive state. In fact, I would say it cannot be. It is a state that calls us to do the work, daily, to find the path forward. And the work can take all forms. Meditation, asking for guidance from the wise souls in our life, seeking out wisdom from the thinkers and the poets and the seekers around us or who came before us, creating spaces of quiet for insight to arise.

Trust. This is a hard one. But it might be the most essential. Trust that we have the patience, the heartiness of spirit to stand in the not knowing. Trust that this will happen on the timeline it needs to happen on, which rarely tracks with our timeline. Trust that we will know the answer when we see it.

Then this: Know that we are not alone. There are millions of others right now sharing the human experience of not knowing with us. So as we hope to find what we need, we can hope that they, too, find what they need.

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